CTC #76 - B.C. caps oil & gas emissions

Hey there,

Welcome to another issue of Climate Tech Canada! Hope you had a great long weekend. 

In case you missed it, we dropped the first episode of The Climate Cycle podcast last week featuring Paul Sehr, co-founder of Jouleia.

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Check it out to learn more about why heat pumps are getting so much hype, how they can reach 400% efficiency, the easy and affordable ways homeowners can make their home more efficient, and what’s landing when Jouleia talking with customers!

This week in climate tech:

• B.C. plans to cap oil & gas emissions

• Arca wins Startup of the Year award for carbon removal tech

• Deep Sky partners with LA carbon removers Avnos

Let’s go!

💰 Funding

Emissions Reduction Alberta funded 13 projects to reduce emissions and improve the grid’s flexibility. Recipients include:

• CRWN.ai will use their sensors and AI to predict failures on remote power lines before they happen.

• HTEC will develop a a high-capacity hydrogen fueling station in Alberta

• X-Energy Canada will explore the feasibility for a small modular nuclear reactor at a repurposed fossil fuel plant.

📈 Milestones & Growth

🏅 Carbon removal startup Arca took home Startup of the Year in the BC Cleantech Awards for its carbon mineralization technology. Intelligent City was named Scaling Venture of the Year for its automated mass timber building platform.

💨 Deep Sky partnered with LA-based Avnos to pilot their Hybrid Direct Air Capture carbon removal tech in Quebec. It’s the first plant for Avnos outside the US.

🍩 Tim Hortons is rolling out Too Good To Go, a European food waste platform, at all 2,000 locations across Canada, allowing customers to get discounted food items that were overproduced or are nearing best-by dates.

📊 Halifax-based Acuicy will join the latest cohort of Techstars Sustainability accelerator to develop their business intelligence software for emissions reduction. 

🚢 GIT Coatings will provide their sustainable and high-performance coatings to shipping company Pacific Basin, which is rolling out the coatings across their fleet.

🗞️ In the news

🏭 Backup plan: B.C. plans to introduce a cap on oil & gas emissions next year to act as a backstop for national rules. If the federal regulations don’t go far enough, B.C.’s will take over. The feds put forward their own proposal for an emissions cap late last year, aiming for a 35-38% emissions cut. B.C.’s system is still in the works, but could include absolute reductions or incorporating other tools like tradable credits, offsets or compliance payments. The province produces just 2% of Canada’s oil but 35% of natural gas.

🛍️ Fast and loose: Fast fashion is under fire again this week, as retailers Asos, Boohoo and Asda signed agreements with the UK’s competition authority to only use “accurate and clear” green claims. This includes avoiding using misleading imagery like green leaves to imply a sustainable option. Lululemon is facing a similar complaint for overstating its work to reduce supply chain emissions, while France introduced a bill to penalize fast fashion brands.

🥵 Inflation, meet heatflation. Research shows extreme heat could start to driving up food prices by as much as 2% in North America and 3% globally. That’s as much as the Bank of Canada targets for overall inflation. It’s important to keep the costs of climate inaction in mind as politicians and influencers try to play up the <1% impact of carbon pricing on grocery bills. And coincidentally, much of Canada just went right from winter into widespread drought.

🗞️ In other news:

• The University of Waterloo launched a new advanced battery research centre, developing cutting edge technology and a talent pipeline for the sector.

• B.C. gas and electric utility FortisBC is being sued for greenwashing. The lawsuit takes issue with the utility presenting renewable natural gas as a climate solution. 

• Honda’s Canadian expansion plans may include a battery materials factory in Quebec and an EV plant in Ontario.

• Enbridge will follow through on paying rebates for home renovations after a pause in the program threw the fate of rebates into uncertainty.

• Cities could soon be home to many new species, as climate change shifts their ecological niche.

• The U.S. took a big swing on industrial decarbonization, investing $6B in projects like green steel plants, chemicals, cement and other hard-to-decarbonize sectors.

• In a boost for nuclear, a power plant in Michigan could be the first ever to reopen in the U.S. after securing a $1.5B loan.

• While the lithium industry has been reeling from oversupply and low prices, Chile wants to double lithium production to avoid supply shortfalls that could drive up prices and make alternative battery technologies more attractive.

📣 What’s going on

💡 Call for Proposals: Marine Transportation and Sustainable Seafood: Applications are open for two streams with Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, which co-invests with industry to commercialize innovative solutions. Apply by April 16th. 

📌 Jobs

Check out the job board for newly posted roles from Canadian climate tech companies like RailVision, Deep Sky, and Carbonhound!

➡️ Hiring? List your posting here.

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Justin